£5million for Leslie Ash - more than all MRSA awards since 2002

'Cut down in her prime': Leslie Ash has won £5million in compensation after she nearly died from a hospital superbug

Leslie Ash is to receive a record £5million damages for the hospital superbug which wrecked her career.

The compensation deal - signed by her lawyers yesterday - is ten times the £500,000 she was initially reported to have been awarded.

Miss Ash - still best known for her role as Deborah in the 1990s sitcom Men Behaving Badly - is said to be 'delighted'.

The 47-year-old actress caught a strain of MRSA nearly four years ago at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She was partially paralysed for months and is still unable to walk properly.

Figures from the NHS Litigation Authority show that about £5million was paid out in damages in cases involving hospital-acquired infections from 2002 to 2006.

Her solicitor Janice Gardner said: "This is a substantial sum which reflects what Leslie has lost in her life due to contracting this infection.

"She was a very commercially bankable actress with an enormously successful career in television, but she has done very little since. Obviously she has been cut down in her prime.

"All she wants to say is that she is delighted that an agreement has been reached without the matter going to court.

"Now she can put all the stress and strain of the case behind her, although she will remain active in the campaign for cleaner hospitals."

Miss Ash lives with her husband Lee Chapman and their teenage sons, Joe and Max, in a £2million penthouse flat in Chelsea. After Men Behaving Badly she played several roles, notably as a policewoman in Merseybeat.

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Payout: Leslie Ash with husband Lee Chapman. The actress has been awarded a record sum from the NHS

Chapman, a former footballer, owns a bar in Clapham, South London.

Miss Ash has said that she would love to continue her acting career but the offers of work dried up after her illness.

She can no longer play the 'attractive young blonde' characters for which she is known and her health is too frail to endure the demands of TV and film sets.

The actress had sued the hospital for negligence and the case was due to be heard at the High Court in April. But the NHS Litigation Authority was keen to settle the matter and offered her the £5million sum plus her £250,000 legal costs.

The figure, which she will receive within 28 days, is by a huge margin a record for a superbug victim.

Miss Ash caught the infection after being admitted to hospital in April 2004 with a punctured lung and two broken ribs.

Her husband was arrested on suspicion of assault but released without charge when she claimed the injuries were sustained during an 'energetic' sex session.

She contracted MSSA, a strain of MRSA, from an epidural needle which came loose.

Her condition was so serious that her two sons aged 17 and 14 were warned that she might not survive.

The hospital accepted there was a breach of duty in some aspects of her treatment but denied responsibility for the full extent of her injuries. It demanded proof from her lawyers of the alleged financial losses that she suffered.

The NHS Litigation Authority's chief executive, Steve Walker, said the payout was 'overwhelmingly' based on the actress's loss of earnings.

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Leslie Ash was recovering from two broken ribs sustained in a 'frantic' sex session with husband Lee Chapman when she contracted MRSA

"She is still a young woman at the peak of her career. In all of these high-value cases, the highest percentage of the damages will be loss of earnings."

A spokesman for the Chelsea and Westminster said: "We wish to apologise to Mrs Chapman for the shortcomings in her care. We sincerely regret the injuries she sustained as a result of these failings.

"The trust carried out a full review of all relevant procedures in this case to learn from its mistakes and to improve patient care. As a direct result, the trust updated its guidelines and provided nurses with additional training on monitoring infection."